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9-year-old girl's arrest by Portland police stirs reaction

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Portland police policy currently allows officers to handcuff, fingerprint and photograph juveniles of any age if they're accused of misdemeanors or felonies. Juvenile advocates are discussing a proposed city ordinance that would add restrictions.
(The Oregonian/File)

Latoya Harris will be among a panel of speakers addressing Portland's Citizen Review Committee Wednesday night.

She's scheduled to address the committee about 6:45 p.m. The meeting will be held in the Portland Building on the second floor, Room C, 1220 S.W. Fifth Ave.

Here's a look at some of the comments the story has generated:

William Bjornson, Aloha, O'ReaganBoth of these 'gentlemen' have shown here poor judgement of a level that
two generations ago would have seen them run out of town as child
abusers. This WAS child abuse, absolutely unnecessary bullying behavior
by representatives of The State. If they will do such casual and
conscienceless psychological damage to a nine year old child, what mercy
might we expect for the damaged and mentally ill.

evolvingDo
metro area police departments read these comments? They should. Cops
come across as total jerks when they do stuff like this. I have no
problem with the police taking in an alleged violent child for
questioning, as long as a parent is asked to accompany her. Handcuffs on
a 9 year old is idiotic unless the kid is throwing a fit. If a parent
isn't available, the police should not be able to question the child
until a parent/guardian can be there, or a public defender.

salalgal@formerlyret@under_dog The
fact she is nine years old is not a reason to not investigate. Mom
didn't like the fact the police needed to get full and complete
information from her daughter? Come on. If you don't cooperate and if
you require the police to do a more extensive investigation of incidents
because YOU refuse to cooperate you get transported into the police
station. Happens all the time. To children and to adults.

Arnytodd2Maybe
this was just a scared straight moment. You know like back in the good
old days when if a young kid broke the law they were taken into custody
and taken down to the station so they would know what to expect and how
scary it is. Booking the child really won't do too much harm as her
record will be wiped away when she is 18 unless she has serious problems
in the future.

I
missed that earlier. Truly LOL funny if it weren't so sad. Do these
guys ever work with kids? Nine year old's are often inconsistent!!!

***

Youth advocates also have been invited to speak at the Citizen Review Committee on Wednesday. Among those will be Mark McKechnie, executive director of Youth, Rights & Justice, a
not-for-profit law firm that serves vulnerable children, and Joseph Hagedorn,
chief supervising attorney for the Metropolitan Public Defender's juvenile
unit.